Rich House Poor House single mum swaps weekly £158 budget for £1.8k – and breaks down in tears after surprising teen daughter with first laptop

Mum-of-two Terry struggles to make ends meet and has never been able to afford a computer for her kids.

By Alison Maloney

1st October 2018, 6:12 pm

Updated: 4th October 2018, 9:53 pm

By Alison Maloney

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A SINGLE mum-of-two who swapped homes and budgets with a rich family of four burst into tears after giving her 14-year-old daughter her first laptop.

Terry Morgan and children Coral and Theo, 12, traded their cramped three-bed flat above a curry house in Havant, worth £133k, for the Colemans’ spacious £750k family home in Salisbury in Rich House Poor House.

'Gobsmacked' Theo flings money around after the family count the £1792 budget

Grateful Coral told her: “This laptop is going to help me a lot. It’s going to help with my GCSEs.”

Afterwards, Terry broke down on camera as she recorded a message for her kids, saying: “I wish I could have given you all the opportunities that are out there, but I’m going to give you the ones I can. I love you.”

Swimming instructor Terry, who divorced the children’s dad two years before, owns her own flat but struggles to make ends meet.

“Most of my money goes on my mortgage. It’s lucky in one respect and a burden in another. Lucky that I own the house and no one can take it away but I have to maintain it.

“All of a sudden the car tax comes along and that kind of messes with you if you’re banking on that money.”

In a new twist to the show’s format, the families met up at the end, and got on like a house on fire.

Jo, who gave up a job in PR to work at home as a copywriter, said she admired Terry’s choice to retrain.

She said: “It’s been a lot easier for me to make that life choice.

“I have huge respect for Terry for doing what she’s doing. It must take a hell of a lot of drive and determination.”

Terry said she hoped a week in the ‘Rich House’ had given her kids inspiration to thrive.

“I already have my goal and I know where I want to be. But for the children it was important for them to see that if you don’t mess around when you’re younger, like I did, you can achieve that big house if they choose to.”